Earth-Save

Ashley Judd, actress and native Kentuckian, is more famous these days for her outspoken opposition to mountaintop removal mining than her acting career.  Judd equates the practice of blasting the tops off mountains to extract coal as the “rape of Appalachia.”

In response, the coal mining industry created a billboard at a coal-sponsored golf tournament in Kentucky showing a topless Judd and mocking her concern.  The billboard says:  “Ashley makes a living removing her top.  Why can’t coal miners?”

First and most obvious, a topless Ashley Judd is much more beautiful than a topless mountain:

But more importantly, whereas a topless Ashley brings the viewer a few moments of joy, a topless mountain is an unsightly, toxic mess that brings decades of health and environmental problems for thousands of local residents.

A January 2010 report in the journal Science agrees that mountaintop removal (MTR) has serious environmental impact that is not mitigated by standard coal company procedures.  MTR problems include:

• MTR destroys water quality, fills streams with toxic waste, and turns them orange with acid mine drainage.
• MTR toxic waste has to be dammed up in sludge ponds, which contaminate groundwater and can burst and destroy hundreds of acres of forest.
• MTR destroys forests, leaving a flat topped mountain with invasive, exotic grasses.
• MTR promotes erosion and alters the natural flow of streams and drainage.
• MTR fills the air with toxic coal dust.

According to a FoxNews article, David Gooch, president of Coal Operators and Associates, said he doesn’t know who created the sign but he isn’t surprised: “Many Appalachians are angry over Judd’s criticisms because they see it as an attack on their livelihoods and culture.”

Of course the knuckleheads commenting on the FoxNews article pretty much lined up for coal and against Judd.  Once you get past the wisecracks about Judd being a “Hollywood whore” or “liberal elite,” the most common argument is this: “It is because of coal that each of us leaving a comment on their computers is able to do so.” 

In other words, because we’re doing it now, then it must be right.  I wonder how life would be today if we used that same inane argument for bleeding medical patients with leeches or keeping slaves?

This isn’t a liberal vs. conservative issue, it’s an American issue.  Do we want our country to be slaves to dirty, expensive fossil fuels forever? 

Coal is so 1814.  We are relying on 200-year-old technology (coal) and 120-year-old technology (oil) to drive our 21st century economy.  These resources are dirty to produce, dirty to consume, increasingly expensive, often supplied by countries that want us dead, and limited to only a few decades of supply remaining. 

America became a superpower because we are smart and innovative and free, but now we’re just being stupid and short-sighted and slaves to the status quo.  How long do you think America will remain on top if we keep losing a billion dollars a day to feed our energy addiction?

Coal and oil are necessary evils for the immediate future.  But for America to succeed in the coming decades, we need to become world leaders in sustainable energy innovation and manufacturing.

Get smart, America!